Let's read the entire run

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 303: January 2003


part 2/9


Scale Mail: They manage to find a letter that's unreservedly positive about issue 300, with their only little niggle that the forum is long-gone. Unsurprisingly, they blame the internet for that. You've got to move with the times, and enough people have that it no longer got a decent number of letters. So they definitely aren't going back on that decision.

We get a request for more tie-in adventures, so the themes in Dragon and Dungeon are even more closely co-ordinated. Be careful what you wish for. Before you know it there'll be even more pressure to catch 'em all around here.

A letter that points out that in some ways, issue 273's swashbuckling stuff was better than 301's. It was certainly better referenced. See, this is the problem with covering the same topic again too soon. You need to give it at least 5 years or so for there to be a decent amount of audience churn, otherwise everyone'll remember and compare them.

The character sheet from issue 301 gets a surprising amount of commentary. It's pretty, but maybe not the most practical design. Character sheets always wind up a mess after a year or two of weekly use, adding experience, equipment, and regularly taking damage. A pristine character sheet is like a perfectly made bed. Going to that much effort every day is a waste, but you should do it sometimes, really.

Another letter about issue 300 points out that it's actually less scary than most Stephen King novels, and those are considered entirely suitable for kids these days, despite there being a fair amount of sex and gruesome death in them. It's amazing what a difference marketing and familiarity makes.

And finally, we have an amusingly dogmatic letter from an old-school reader who isn't entirely happy with the way the magazine has gone in recent years. Gygax is the only really good thing left in it. Looking at his writing style, I can see why he thinks that.


Zogonia meets a foe who forgoes the usual minion system. This is actually more scary.

Dork tower suffers from selective memory loss, just like everyone else.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 303: January 2003


part 3/9


Campaign components: The modular treatment of Knights and Swashbucklers turned out to be surprisingly dull. However, that is not the case for gladiators, which turn out to be very well suited to the 3e ruleset. Building characters on equal point buys, levels and amounts of money, and then seeing which is the deadliest is an entirely valid and well supported way of playing the game, with all the different fiddly parts for you to optimise. This is further helped by the fact that the real world history of gladiatorial fighting reads like a particularly gonzo fantasy campaign in itself. From humble beginnings, it became a huge sprawling commercial monstrosity, with increasingly over the top new novelties introduced on a regular basis to keep the attention of an increasingly jaded population. Lions, tigers, midgets and mini naval battles, oh my. Adding demihumans, magic and weirder monsters doesn't hurt the mood at all. So this time, they manage to sell me pretty effectively on their game model, as it allows not only for easy pickup fights with whoever is around at the time, but also a ton of roleplaying centred around the backstage politics, with plot hooks like being sent out to capture a particularly impressive monster for the arena and the usual cheating shenanigans that take place in any competitive sport. They're relatively light on the new crunch this time as well, with just a few new feats, and a system for tracking your fame in the ring. (and it amuses me to think about them having an office leaderboard. ) So this is more applicable to other games than many of their articles as well. Let's hope they can find some more alternative playstyles that actually fit the system well.


Piffany saves the day in Nodwick. And how. Why should wizards get all the inventive uses for their spells?


Class acts: Looks like the tendency for longer prestige class write-ups with more fluff attached is catching on. We have three different gladiator based 5 level prestige classes this month, each showcasing a different combat style.

The invisible blade becomes a deadly feinter and sneak attacker, taking the enemy down before they even realize they've been hit. Combine that with some stage magician-esque antics, and the audience won't be seeing your enemies for long, but they'll still love you for it.

The occult slayer is of course designed specifically to fight spellcasters. Never an easy task for a warrior in D&D. But they do have resistance to most of the common screwage effects, which will hopefully work well enough to slice them into ribbons.

The reaping mauler is the coolest of them all, a brutal grappling specialist that can lock down their opponents, rendering them vulnerable to their teammates, and really show off in the ring without having to kill their enemies. You really don't want to get in a one-on one fight with them.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 303: January 2003


part 4/9


Saying the right things: A few more uses for your social skills here, showing an article doesn't have to be all new feats and spells spreading your slots thinner and thinner, or whole new subsystems like the ones Robin tries to add on this topic. If anything, this shows you how to make do without buying up the full compliment, by taking better advantage of the overlap between them. Intimidate gets the common house rule of substituting your strength for your charisma, so all those ugly fighter sorts can be realistically threatening instead of getting laughed at. The only skill that you can't really substitute for is sense motive, which is more of a passive skill than the others, if no less useful. All of these are logical, useful and not overpowered, so this is definitely the kind of article that i'd use in my game. Like the herbalism articles, these kind of mundane details still need filling in in 3e.


The Iron Path: Speaking of relatively mundane stuff, here's 15 new martial arts styles for the OA fans amongst you. Since they generally give advantages to fighters and monks in particular, they're very welcome to those who want the game a little more balanced. Each of them is specific to a particular race, with elves and dwarves getting several, and everyone else getting one, including several monster races like goblins, ogres and gnolls. Some are familiar, like elven bladesong and Drow two-weapon fighting, while others are all new. None seem particularly overpowered for their price, with even the formerly twinktastic bladesong style just offering a +4 bonus to concentration checks to avoid spell disruption. As with the previous article, this provides a good number of low key options in an area that isn't oversaturated yet, so it's entirely welcome.


The under-groves: The underdark, on the other hand is pretty heavily detailed already. However, this article manages to find some cool new ideas to fill it with anyway. One problem with the underdark is how it manages to have a sustainable food chain and ecology without the sun to provide energy for plants. Well, it turns out there are several options without resorting to generic magical radiation (ie handwaving) as your base. Thanks to water's ability to dissolve all sorts of stuff, it can serve as a transport medium both horizontally and vertically, to keep things moving and let a wide variety of organisms grow where you don't expect them. Which means there's all sorts of theoretical underground terrains that could be formed. And the ones here are pretty imaginative, filled with all sorts of new monsters and smaller environmental dangers like slipping, becoming stuck, or contracting various diseases. Since oozes, slimes, vermin and fungi are less in fashion this edition, it's very fun seeing a whole bunch of variants on the theme, ands planning to unleash them on players who are too used to adventuring being a glamorous process. As anyone who's actually been spelunking knows, while there are some incredibly pretty crystal caverns out there, you also wind up negotiating your way through a lot of wet mucky cramped spaces too. I really like this one, as it's got both plenty of solidly thought out details, and fantastical bits that couldn't happen in reality. It'll make your imaginary world feel nicely solid and visceral.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 303: January 2003


part 5/9


Guild secrets: An academy of necromancers? The players are going to slaughter their way through this like a hot knife through butter, especially if they have divine spellcasters in the party. This month's guild is presented pretty unambiguously as villains who need a good asskicking before they expand to a size where they can seriously consider taking over the world. Because they don't look that threatening yet. Hell, their guildmaster doesn't even have access to 9th level spells, which means Elminster'd just pat her on the head and be lecherously patronising before teleporting away and leaving a bunch of cryptic hints that direct adventuring parties to their door. This is a pretty short article, with not quite enough info on the organisation, because it feels like they were more interested finding another place to fit in some more new feats and equipment. (which feel like they missed the bus for the book of vile darkness, and are just happy to get into the magazine at all.) Once again, they're really not bringing their A game here.


Fiction: Prying eyes by Johnny L Wilson. The gig is pretty much up for T. H. Lain as a pseudonym, as the magazine's boss can't resist claiming the credit for this particular excerpt from their new novel line. What's going on in terms of behind the scenes manoeuvring there? I'm guessing the writers aren't particularly happy about working uncredited. As an excerpt, this is one of those annoying instances where they set up the plot, but then leave it unresolved, so you have to buy the book if you want to know what happens in the end. The story seems to tread quite a bit of the same ground as Salvadore's cleric quintet, with the action scenes mixed with debate about the nature of religion, the question of if might makes right, and the value of worshipping gods when a lot of the time they don't respond to your requests, or act in mysterious and subtle ways. The kind of trope that never ceases to feel incongruous in a D&D universe where there's lots of gods, many of them highly active in the world, and most clerics should be very aware that they're servants of the gods, not masters. So really, this just serves to highlight that many of the writers in the company would like to put more philosophy, setting detail and interesting touches in their books, but they have to deal with a company that wants them to churn out populist pablum and then not even credit them properly for it on the cover, and a system that strongly encourages some media tropes while not working with others at all. It's tough being inside the big machine, and right now I don't envy the official writers one bit.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 303: January 2003


part 6/9


Silicon Sorcery: For a second month in a row, this column is extended out and turned into a promotional tool for Neverwinter Nights, underscoring both how much original material appeared in the game, and how much the company has invested in it's success. A popular D&D computer game now has the potential to make them several times more money than the whole tabletop division, and boost the overall value of the IP quite a bit. A really bad run of them could make their name an embarrassment like it is in the movie industry.

Skeletal Intellect Devourers are undead versions of everyone's least favourite four-legged brains. Like their living counterparts, they can squeeze into a skull and take control of a body, but it remains obviously dead, which reduces their potential for subtlety. They still have a pretty decent selection of psionics though, so they're no slouches in a fight, if not as hard to kill as the previous edition version.

Battle Intellect Devourers are bigger and tougher, but also dumber and pretty much lacking in psionic powers. This means they're not nearly as scary in actual play. Mind-affecting powers are always a bugger to adjudicate in computer games, so I'm not really surprised they had to switch things around a bit. Still, it does mean they're less interesting and weaker than the old school version. I guess it's the same rule that applies with Beholder and Dragon variants. New writers are scared to go as hard as the originals, so they're rarely as impressive.

The Creator Race are reptilians from before the dawn of man, with a penchant for magical engineering, who put themselves in stasis because they were losing to the dragons. Now some have been thawed out, and they want to show the puny monkeys who's boss. While pretty flexible magically, they have a special knack for fire, cold and necromancy spells, able to resist and Empower them for free, so you'll probably want to use other energy types to zap them.

Spirits of the Woods are your basic nature spirits, able to assume the form of any animal, only smart and with plenty of druid spells. Another fairly generic idea that you can probably get a fair bit of use out of.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 303: January 2003


part 7/9


Dork tower gets through a lot of encounters in 5 minutes. They must level up pretty fast.


DM's toolbox gets two articles this month. First up is our regular one from Johnn, talking about how to make good plot hooks in clear bullet pointed format, as is his wont. The important thing is to give them a situation where they have to do something, but have a choice of exactly what action to take, so something fun is bound to happen, but you won't be sure exactly what. And don't hesitate to take the consequences of previous adventures, and use them again, because it's less effort, and continuity gives the players more emotional involvement. Just make sure you have a few prefab ones that are easy to apply whatever the situation for when the adventure stalls to give the game another push. So this doesn't say anything new, but says it with style. Like an old pulp magazine, you can still get exciting plots out of it despite knowing the formulas.

Second, we have one on making your characters instantly distinguishable when speaking IC. As a DM, if you have a grasp of how to do voices, facial expressions, body language, and maybe manipulate a prop or two, you won't have to tell players which NPC is speaking to them, because they'll be able to tell, and that'll both save time and help with immersion. That seems slightly more challenging than learning how to whip up good plot hooks, but also well worth devoting the time too. And who knows, maybe you can apply those skills to an actual job. There are far worse things to do with your life than being a cartoon voice actor. So both of these parts turned out good this time. Not often I can say that.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 303: January 2003


part 8/9


The play's the thing: Robin returns to this column, and picks up where he left off, talking about resolving OOC conflicts via psychological profiling and figuring out what everyone's expectations are, this time from the perspective of the player trying to understand their DM. In a situation like this, where you want to retain a friendly relationship with your DM so you can continue to play in an enjoyable manner, there is very definitely a wrong way to raise your problems with the game. You need to be specific and constructive in your criticism, nonconfrontational in your approach, and willing to compromise for the greater good of the group if you want the best odds of success. And if after all that, it still looks like you can't meet in the middle, it's better to leave and find a new group rather than continue to deal with the stress and drama. Once again, he's trying to condense the advice of a whole chapter of a social dynamics book, and not doing too bad a job. Let's put those stereotypes about gamers to bed for good.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 303: January 2003


part 9/9


Sage advice: What AC does dragon hide armor have (All sorts. It gets complicated. Still can't get better than regular full plate though. Not worth the bother really.)

What gets multiplied in a critical hit (everything but bonus dice )

Do nonproficiency penalties stack (How does that even work? You are making no sense to Skip. You'd better shape up (ohh, oohh ooh.) Cause Skip needs a man, That'll keep Skip satisfied. Er. Forget about that last bit. Skip is the Sage who puts the pages in the mages and the broomstick between the witches legs! Don't you ever suggest otherwise or Skip'll blow your head off!)

What does having speak language as a class skill do for you (Lets you learn languages at half price. This is immensely useful, believe Skip.)

Can you blast things with magic missiles while ethereal (No. The ability of force effects to cross the planar boundary is one way. Keeps you from being too able to screw without retaliation. )

If you have a mighty smiting weapon and two classes with smiting, do you get an extra smite for each one (no)

How does the inability to be flanked except by people 4+ levels above stack up for multiclassed characters (Only count the classes that grant sneak attack and uncanny dodge. )

What's a corporeal source (The creature and the object. The colour and the shape, the weight and edges and the space inbetween. Don't forget the pretentiousness. That's an important quality for any object that you should take care to quantify.)

How does true strike work against invisible opponents. (Ok, if you aim for the right square in the first place. Better wait for a good hint. Keep your ears open, but not too open, otherwise your buds may pour stuff down them for a prank.)


What's new has a flashback to olden days, to go with the gladiatorial theme. Guess Phil's older than we thought.


While they are quite low on variety this issue, the articles are of well above average quality, with the themed part showing the results of loving care and attention. It really shows that no matter how professional and polished you are, you still need at least a little enthusiasm for your creativity to resonate with the consumers. Let's hope that whatever next issue's theme is, at least someone on the staff will be genuinely enthusiastic about it.

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 304: February 2003


part 1/9


91 pages (108) Great. Not even three years in, and they're already bringing out a new edition. Well, half a new edition, anyway. This'll annoy some people. Fittingly, we're only getting half the warning time we got for the big 3.0 changeover. I guess this means they'll be filling a good few pages every issue 'till then with teasers. Goes to show, those things are addictive. You use them once for a big event, and next thing you know you're coming up with excuses to pull them out again every year until diminishing returns make people yawn at even the real spectacles. Let's keep going, see if the people writing into the magazine are impressed or cynical.


Scan Quality: Slightly dog-eared edges, unindexed, ad-free scan.


In this issue:


Wyrms turn: As we already found last issue, character sheets can be a surprisingly big deal. And the longer they get used, the more they inevitably wind up reflecting the personality of the user, as they add things, remove them, protect them or let them get food stained and dog-eared, and eventually have to replace them and start the cycle all over again. Some are organised, some are chaotic, and some just look like a regular sheet from the back of the book. You could learn a lot about someone by looking at theirs. So this is certainly a fun little editorial, born out of plenty of actual play experience. It's by exposure to different people and things that we can find out how diverse the world is, and what we want to be. Becoming something else, and then keeping up those good habits, of course, is a harder matter altogether. Do you manage to keep your character sheet neat, or does it turn into a mass of pencil scribblings eventually despite your best intentions?


Scale Mail: We start off with some conspiracy theory numerology. As is often the case, it turns out the readers are overthinking things way more than the writers were. Deadlines kinda reduce your interest in mucking around with symbolism and double meanings, and motivate you to just get stuff done.

Next, we have a letter from someone who's pretty much moved all their record keeping and notes to their computer. Plenty more people will follow in their footsteps over the years, have no doubt.

A letter of general praise, paying particular attention to the recent works of Kieran Turley. I shall have to keep an eye out for his name in the future.

A letter from someone who feels that they are surrounded by idiots. They just don't seem to be learning how to become good roleplayers. Some people never will, my dear. All you can do is bear your superiority with grace, not arrogance.

Praise for finally allowing a gay character into D&D. They were a little nervous about it at first, but it seems to have paid off. Let's hope it won't be years until we see another.

Some rules quibbling. Some things, you just can't do with curses. They need to be aware of their suffering, otherwise what's the point?

And finally, another letter from someone who's happy with the way the magazine is going, and people shouldn't panic if not every single article is useful for them right now. Chances are, it might be sometime in the future. Unless your game is exactly the same every session, in which case, can you really call it adventuring?

 

[(un)reason]

Dragon Issue 304: February 2003


part 2/9


Zogonia shows how to do a transformation curse with style. You won't be dissing this lich again in a hurry.


Up on a soapbox: Gary gives us another goofy little story of how his adventures went back in the day. He made a wish (a dicey thing to do at the best of times in D&D land) and managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by goofing around and not taking the obvious route in the dungeon. This is what happens when you spend your time as a DM devising sadistic deathtraps like the tomb of horrors. You can wind up being a little TOO paranoid, and tripping up on your own cleverness as you try to outsmart the DM. It's one of those tricky to learn lessons. No matter how good you get, you should never forget how to play badly. It'll help you immensely every time you play with a new group of people, as you have to refit your assumptions to the new situation and make sure the game remains fun for everyone.


Nodwick wins by using psychological warfare. His nose is also looking extra square today. Did someone break it off-camera?


3.5 Revision update: Since 3e was released, it's got a pretty serious workout, with tons of people pushing it in different directions and then complaining loudly on internet message boards. This means even though only 2 1/2 years have passed, they have more info on it's problem areas and things that need tuning up than any other roleplaying game. They spend quite a bit of time just explaining why they're doing this, so the solid teasers are pretty sparse. The main ones are that they intend to put more attention to how various monsters turn out as PC's, as they got a lot of questions on that, and they now have a stronger idea of all the different things you can do with prestige classes, and intend to put more effort into providing examples of each and design tips in the new DMG. Both seem pretty reasonable given what I've seen. It's not just moneygrubbing, it's the fact that the internet vastly accelerates the process of interaction between readers and authors, so any problems found, even if only a small number of groups encounter them, or consider them an issue, will be disseminated around the world and widely known within weeks of a book being released. Still, let's hope the next instalments have plenty of information so I can examine in detail the changes I like, the changes I don't, and the ones that feel like they were put in because a few loud voices were complaining, but didn't really matter to most people.